Missile forming apparatus



Sept. 5, 1967 R. c. BUTH 3,339,251

MISSILE FORMING APPARATUS Original Filed July 27, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet l ATTORNEYS Sept. 5, 1967 R. c. BUTH 3,339,251

MISSILE FORMING APPARATUS Original Filed July 27, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Sept. 5, 1967 R. c. BUTH 3,339,251

7 MISSILE FORMING APPARATUS I Original Filed July 27, 1964 4 Sheets-Sheet mg: CL FEEL 023 o: m

Sept. 5, 1967 R. c. BUTH 3,339,251

MISSILE FORMING APPARATUS Original Filed July 27,1964 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 j g'q 2 v 36 45 34 United States Patent Ofiice 3,339,251 MISSILE FORMING APPARATUS Roy C. Buth, Evansville, Ind., assignor to Whirlpool Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Continuation of application Ser. No. 385,172, July 27, 1964. This application Oct. 12, 1966, Ser. No. 602,435

7 Claims. (Cl. 291.2)

This application comprises a continuation of my copending application Ser. No. 385,172, filed July 27, 1964.

This invention relates to an apparatus for forming a plurality of elongate missiles each having penetrating means at one end and flight guiding means at the other.

A type of weapon that has been developed for the armed services is a missile having a penetrating means such as a sharpened point at one end and flight guiding means at the other such as a plurality of spaced vanes each extending longitudinally of the missile and adapted to guide the missile in flight so that when the missile is propelled through the air the travel of the missile will be longitudinal of its central axis with the point foremost. customarily, these missiles are used for various ordnance applications. These missiles can be as small as one inch or smaller in length.

.One of the features of this invention is to provide an improved apparatus that is capable of producing these missiles.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of one embodiment thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Of the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a missile producing apparatus embodying the invention with the power supply omitted in this view.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the apparatus showing some but not all the individual missile forming dies and locking means there-for.

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal sectional view of the apparatus taken on a plane that contains the axes of all four die wheels and shafts of this embodiment with only some of the dies and locking means being shown in detail.

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken substantially along line 4--4 of FIGURE 3 illustrating the cooperative action of the dies in a pair of laterally adjacent die wheels.

FIGURE 5 is a sectional view taken substantially along line 5- 5 of FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 6 is an enlarged elevational view as viewed from line 66 of FIGURE 3 showing the inner ends of two angularly adjacent dies on two adjacent die wheels.

The apparatus of this invention as shown in the accompanying drawings comprises a base plate 10 supported on four spaced legs 11. This base plate provides support for four vertically mounted circular die wheels 12 each arranged at 90 to the next die wheels and defined on the outer surface by a pair of annular planes 13 with the two planes on each wheel arranged 90 apart so that they converge at a central peak 14. The two planes 13 therefore define the peripheral surface of each wheel with the peak 14 being at the center of the circumference.

The wheels 12 being mounted 90 apart have these peripheral peaks 14 adjacent each other at the center of the apparatus as shown in FIGURE 3.

In order to provide mounting for the wheels 12 there are provided support bearings 15 arranged in pairs with each pair at 90 to the next pair and with each pair holding between the bearings a die wheel 12.

3,339,251 Patented Sept. 5, 1967 Each wheel 12 is mounted on a shaft 16 with the opposite ends of the shaft extending through the corresponding pair of bearings 15. Each shaft 16 is held in position on its pair of bearings 15 by means of a pair of bearing caps 17 of customary construction each fastened to its hearing by a pair of threaded bolts 18. This manner of fastening the bearing cap 17 in position on its bearing is shown in detail in the left-hand side of FIGURE 2 with the bolts 18 being shown in broken lines. Although not so shown, it is of course understood that the opposite bearing cap 17 is held in position by similar bolts 18. Each die wheel 12 is keyed to its shaft for rotation therewith by a key 19 as shown most clearly at the bottom of FIGURE 3.

Mounted on the end of each shaft 16 is a miter gear 20 that is preferably a spiral miter gear as illustrated in FIGURE 1. Each gear 20 is keyed to its end of the shaft by means of the key 21, also as shown most clearly in FIGURE 3, with the end of each shaft 16 being threaded and carrying a nut 22 outwardly of its gear. As can be seen, the inner surfaces of the gears 20 bear against the outer surfaces of the corresponding support bearings 15 and corresponding bearing cap 17. The gears 20 are of customary construction with the teeth of one gear engaging the teeth of the next gear as shown most clearly in FIG- URE 3 and with these two gears being arranged at One of the shafts 16, the lower shaft as shown in FIG- URE 3, carries a shaft extension 23 through which power is supplied to the apparatus by any means desired as indicated diagrammatically at 24.

The power supply 24 is arranged to rotate the shaft extension 23 and thus its shaft 16 in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from the power supply 24. Because of the above described arrangement of the interlocking gears 20- this rotates all die wheels 12 so that the peripheries travel toward the center of the apparatus, as indicated by the direction arrows 25 of FIGURE 3. The power supply 24 is preferably a variable speed drive. Thus the rate of production of the missile may be varied at will by varying the speed of the drive and thus the speed of rotation of the die wheels 12.

The top of the apparatus is provided with a top plate 26 that is mounted on the coplanar top surfaces of the four support bearings 15.

Mounted centrally of this top plate 26 is a removable guide sleeve 27 having its inner end 28 aligned with the point of convergence of the rotating die wheels 12. This guide sleeve is for guiding a wire 29 into this point of convergence and the guide sleeve has a central bore 30 through which the wire is directed into the exact center of the apparatus and this point of convergence. The sleeve is removable so that the sides of the bore 30 can be selected to correspond with the diameter of the wire 29.

Each die wheel 12 is provided with a series of spaced radial cylindrical openings 31 arranged radially of the circumferential peak 14 and with each opening occupied by a missile forming die or punch 32. Each die has a generally cylindrical body and is held in position within its opening 31 by a set screw 33. This set screw is in an opening 34 in the die wheel 12 and extends laterally of the die 32. The longitudinal or radial position of each die 32 is governed by positioning an inclined surface member 35 .Which is itself locked in position by a set screw 36. As shown most clearly in FIGURE 5, the member 35 has an inclined surface 37 that bears against the inclined inner end 38 of the die 32 to position the die radially dependent upon the longitudinal position of the member 35. This is of course a customary and well known expedient for positioning an adjustable member.

The die wheels 12, of which four are shown in this embodiment, are provided with wire guiding means embodied in a circumferential groove 39 located at the end peak 14 of the circumference of each wheel. These grooves 39 as shown most clearly in FIGURE 4 are adapted to guide and align the wire 29 with respect to the dies 32 during the missile forming operation of the four horizontally aligned dies 32. The wire 29 is fed into die wheels 12 by the grasping action of the adjacent dies 32 of wheels 12 on the wire 29.

Each die 32 has the missile shaping portion thereof at its inner end. As illustrated in FIGURE 4 each die at its inner end has a section 40 sloping toward the opposite die and provided with a wire cutting point 41. The slope of the section 40 terminating in the point 41 determines the angle of the penetrating point 42 of the missile 48 as shown in FIGURE 6.

Rearwardly of the point 41 on each die 32 is an anvil portion 43. These anvil portions grasp the wire as indicated at the bottom of FIGURE 4 and distort the material of the wire so that this material flows between laterally adjacent dies on the different wheels to form the missile vanes 44 which operate as the flight guiding means for the missile. As can be seen in FIGURE 6, the point forming and severing means 40 and 41 of the dies forms the point 42 on one missile and immediately froms the guiding vanes 44 on the next missile. The lateral spacing of each set of four aligned dies to permit the vanes 44 to be extruded therebetween is indicated at the center of FIGURE 3.

The end of the operating surface of each die beyond the anvil portion 43 is sloped away, as indicated at 45, and the slope of this portion determines the slope of the end of the missile that is adjacent the vanes 44 as indicated most clearly at 46 in FIGURE 6. In FIGURE 4, the line 47 is the center line of the shafts 16 and thus of the wheels 12. The point 42 of each missile is formed when each set of point forming die portions 41 reach the center line 47. At this same time, the missile 48 will be cut free and permitted to drop into a receiver (not shown). The initial formation of the set of four vanes 44 will have begun as indicated at the top of FIGURE 4 and will be completed by the time the dies have reached their closest proximity at the center line 47.

The grasping of the wire by the dies 32 also serves to feed or pull the wire through the apparatus, guided by the grooves 39 as previously described.

As can be readily seen, the formation of the missiles is automatic and the rate of formation can be controlled by controlling the speed of rotation of the shaft extension 23 and thus of the four die wheels 12. The missiles may be any size desired with the smallest practical missile being about one inch long.

Each die member is provided on its inner and operating end with a plurality of means comprising (1) means for severing the wire into missile size portions with this means being embodied by the cooperating points 41, (2) means for forming the penetrating means at one end of each missile portion as embodied at the sloped sections 40 and cooperating points 41, and (3) means for forming flight guiding means embodied in vanes 44 at the adjacent end of the adjacent missile portion as provided by the anvil portions 43 and the spacing of the dies from each other laterally to provide space into which the vanes 44 may extrude.

The dies in the illustrated embodiment are arranged on the periphery of the die wheels. Any such arrangement may be used as desired, however, so long as the cooperating areas of successive sets of movable dies (here shown as four coplanar dies to each set) are brought into alignment to form and shape the missiles therebetween.

The term wire is used herein in its broadest sense to mean elongated members of greater length relative to their cross section regardless of the shape of this cross section. A cylindrical wire is illustrated as this is most convenient.

Having described my invention as related to the embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings, it is my intention that the invention be not limited by any of the details of description, unless otherwise specified, but rather be construed broadly within its spirit and scope as set out in the accompanying claims.

The embodiment of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed is defined as follows:

1. Apparatus for forming wire missile penetrating means and flight guiding means, comprising:

means for advancing a wire axially through preselected space;

a plurality of forming members each having a forming portion; and

means for causing relative movement of said members to dispose said forming portions of said members in juxtaposed angularly spaced relationship about said space, said forming portions comprising (a) means for radially inwardly constricting circumferentially spaced, axially elongated portions of the wire in said space to extrude the wire material between the constricted portions radially outwardly and thereby form vanes defining said flight guiding means of a preceding missile and (b) means for severing the wire at an angle to the longitudinal axis thereof rearwardly adjacent said flight guiding means of the preceding missile to form a point defining said penetrating means of a subsequent missile and concurrently separate the preceding missile from the wire.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said plurality of forming members comprises four forming members spaced one each at intervals about the axis of said wire.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said forming members ar earranged to constrict seriatim axially successive portions of said Wire to different degrees whereby said vanes have variable projection from the axis of the wire along the axial extent thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said forming portions are arranged to extrude said vanes to have a radial extent substantially twice the radius of said wire.

5. Apparatus for forming a plurality of elongate missiles each having penetrating means at one end and flight guiding means at the other, comprising:

four rotatable die carrying members with circular peripheries rotatable on coplanar axes spaced 90 apart, With said peripheries converging at an area in said plane;

removable and adjustable spaced dies carried at said peripheries with the successive dies of all rotatable members successively laterally aligning at said area;

means for moving said members in the same relative direction with respect to each other to cause said successive lateral alignment;

means for directing a moving wire adjacent said areas and between laterally aligned areas during movement of said members, said means for directing comprising annular means snugly receiving said wire and spaced from and at a right angle to said area of converging of said rotatable mmebers; and

means forming wire moving and guiding grooves in each periphery between dies to grasp the Wire at circumferential areas of the wire that are 90 apart to move the wire through the dies without substantial distortion of the wire between dies, said dies comprising (1) means for severing said wire during movement of said movable members into missile sized portions each having a pair of opposite ends. (2) means for forming penetrating means at an end of each portion, and

5 6 (3) means for forming flight guiding means at the References Cited adjacent end of the adjacent portion. UNITED STATES PATENTS 6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said means for forming said flight guiding means comprises wire dis- 2,063,119 12/1935 P1611165 placing means on said dies for displacing wire metal into 5 spaced fins substantially symmetrically arranged about FOREIGN PATENTS each said missile. 41,074 8/ 1916 Sweden.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said annular means comprises a tubular member. RICHARD H. EANES, 111., Primary Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR FORMING WIRE MISSILE PENETRATING MEANS AND FLIGHT MEANS, COMPRISING: MEANS FOR ADVANCING A WIRE AXIALLY THROUGH PRESELECTED SPACE; A PLURALITY OF FORMING MEMBERS EACH HAVING A FORMING PORTION; AND MEANS FOR CAUSING RELATIVE MOVEMENT OF SAID MEMBERS TO DISPOSE SAID FORMING PORTIONS OF SAID MEMBERS IN JUXTAPOSED ANGULARLY SPACED RELATIONSHIP ABOUT SAID SPACE8 SAID FORMING PORTIONS COMPRISING (A) MEANS FOR RADIALLY INWARDLY CONSTRICTING CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SPACED, AXIALLY ELONGATED PORTIONS OF THE WIRE IN SAID SPACE TO EXTRUDE THE WIRE MATERIAL BETWEEN THE CONSTRICTED PORTIONS RADIALLY OUTWARDLY AND THEREBY FROM VANES DEFINING SAID FLIGHT GUIDING MEANS OF A PRECEDING MISSILE AND 